It's Easy To Make A Photo Book Out Of Your Own Photographs

In the past, before photography became an almost purely digital medium, there was a strict limit to the number of things which you could do with your images once you'd captured them. The initial developing and printing itself was a long, complicated and expensive process, and the irony was that you wouldn't actually get to see whether you liked your photographs or not until you'd handed over the money for them, by which time, of course, it was too late to do anything about it.

If you did like your photographs then there was a strict limit to what you could do with them, with 'sticking them in a frame or album' being the height of most people's ambition. If you had a particular favorite photograph then it was possible to order more copies, but this depended upon maintaining the negative in perfect condition and was also prohibitively expensive. Even more costly was the process of enlarging photographs, allied to the fact that the somewhat primitive technology in use meant that the bigger a picture was made, the more the visual quality would inevitably drop.

Of course, most ordinary people didn't even stop to consider either of these options. Having printed your photographs the main choice was usually around how to store them safely, with most people opting for a photo album. The albums in question generally tended to be somewhat primitive scrap books, with the actual photographs themselves glued or taped onto the individual pages. Despite this lacking in style and aesthetics, however, albums of this kind generally tended to be much treasured objects, if only because of the emotional resonance of the photographs themselves, and the memories which looking through them tended to bring pouring back.

In the digital age, photographs tend, all too often, to end up being stored on a wide range or memory sticks, hard drives and other devices, meaning that they tend to be neglected rather than enjoyed, and can be under threat from sudden technical failure. Who hasn't had a computer break down on them, only to experience that sinking feeling as they realize that all their favorite family photographs are lost somewhere on the failing hard drive? The hi-tech, luxurious answer to this problem, an updating and revamping of the photo album concept, is to collect your favorite photographs together and use them as the basis for creating a photo book.

If you've ever looked through the photo books for sale in a bookshop, you've doubtless been impressed by the stunning quality of the materials and printing used. This is because the whole point of such a book is to showcase the images to their very best effect, and now the same top of the range treatment can be given to your own favorite photographs. Selecting the images to include will be a process driven by the motivation behind creating the book. You may just wish to preserve a random collection of your favorite images, or chronicle the first year in the life of your new baby.